PESHAWAR: The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has sent alarm bells ringing across the province after intelligence agencies arrested 278 Afghan nationals holding fake Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs).

The cards were acquired from NADRA offices in small towns of far-flung areas. The CNICs were not fake, but apparently, the process through which these were acquired was fraudulent.

“A number of Afghan refugees (have) managed to obtain fake CNICs from different National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) offices, especially from Zhob, Loralai, Bhakkar, Muzafargarh, Thatta and Dera Islmail Khan,” the K-P Home and Tribal Affairs Department said in a notification.

The commissioner Dera Ismail Khan has been directed to take action against Afghan nationals carrying CNICs, along with all those who had been involved in providing CNICs to the Afghan nationals, it said.

When contacted, an official of the Home Department requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune that the department had been receiving information against Afghan nationals having fake CNICs.

“We have issued instructions to NADRA to start screening all the CNICs issued, which would help identify fake CNICs,” he said.

“Apart from CNICs, Afghan nationals, who have transferred properties and vehicles in their names, would also be netted and their properties would be auctioned or confiscated,” the official said.

K-P compensates mine casualties

The K-P government has released a sum of Rs1,100,000 or one hundred thousand each to compensate legal heirs of 11 minors who lost their lives when a phosphate mine caved in at Tarnawal in Abbotabad.

A notification issued here said commissioner Hazara Division has been directed to pay the compensatory amount.